The Poisoned City: Flint's Water and the American Urban Tragedy

by Anna Clark

The first full account of the Flint, Michigan, water scandal, an American tragedy, with new details, from Anna Clark, the award-winning Michigan journalist who has covered the story from its beginnings
When the people of Flint, Michigan, turned on their faucets in April 2014, the water pouring out was poisoned with lead and other toxins. Through a series of disastrous decis The first full account of the Flint, Michigan, water scandal, an American tragedy, with new details, from Anna Clark,...

The Poisoned City: Flint's Water and the American Urban Tragedy Reviews

AnnaAug 24, 2018

In disclosure: I wrote it. ...

LindaAug 29, 2018

Another anger inducing book of what ills one human can induce on another. If I was a violent person, I'd wish even worse on the perpetrators.
This book is about the Flint, Michigan water with the lead that the city and state officials ignored. It's poor and black people - people who d...

Keith TaylorFeb 03, 2019

Anna Clark deserves all kudos for her work here, in this meticulously written (and footnoted!) book. This is what you need to know about governmental negligence, deceit, institutionalized racism, and the corruption that allowed the Flint water crisis to happen. But she's also great at ...

MattAug 15, 2018

?This is the story of how the City of Flint was poisoned by its own water. It was not because of a natural disaster, or simple negligence, or even because some corner-cutting company was blinded by profit. Instead, a disastrous choice to break a crucial environmental law, followed by...

JenniferJan 11, 2019

This was a heartbreaking, infuriating read, and yet I'm glad I did. An in-depth, long-term account of Flint's water crisis, it's also a meditation on the ways that city infrastructures everywhere are suffering from neglect and endangering the most vulnerable. When pundits talk of insti...

Edward SullivanAug 19, 2018

A thorough, gripping chronicle of the Flint water crisis, those responsible for it, who exposed it, and who suffered from it. ...

VictoriaMay 07, 2018

Thanks to Netgalley and Henry Holt/Metropolitan Books for the advanced reader copy of this book. I recommend this well-researched and thoughtful investigation into the recent Flint, MI water crisis. Before reading this, I would have ascribed the Flint water fiasco mainly to government ...

HadrianAug 16, 2018

This is a close and personal subject for me. I live south of Flint, and I heard the news about Flint on Michigan Radio in 2014.
Clark takes a broad, systemic approach to the history of the Flint water crisis. She starts in the 1800s and focuses on the city's development throughout ...

Xe SandsJun 03, 2018

Everyone - EVERYONE - should read this. ...

Paula LyleJul 07, 2018

This is an angry book and thank God for that. There are so many things that contributed to the problems in Flint, Michigan that it is almost beyond understanding. It seems especially noteworthy in the current climate where the EPA is protecting businesses and ignoring and under-reporti...

MeaganDec 12, 2018

This is essential reading for all people who drink municipal water...not just for people in Flint. Lead pipes and service lines are everywhere and are aging quickly, many are over 80 years old. They're not visible, and thus easily forgotten, and it is time for our local and federal gov...

AmyAug 29, 2018

This is a very important book. There really is no arguing this. It has a lot of great information? Maybe too information?
I know what you're thinking -- "Amy, how can a nonfiction book about a city essentially poisoning its citizens have too much information?"
It's just th...

DanFeb 01, 2019

An important and informative work about the Flint water crisis of 2016. Well written with a story-telling style that is not usually seen in micro-history books. The writing is so solid that the meandering arc of the book and the tangential stories and histories about Flint were truly w...

KellyJul 09, 2018

A well written, organized, and researched account of the water crisis in Flint. Clark does an excellent job providing the reader with an understanding of the situation that is all-encompassing of the contemporary and historically rooted issues that culminated into the many problems of ...

Nicole MeansAug 14, 2018

Anna Clark touches on so many issues- urbanization, industrialization, segregation, and the geography of poverty to name a few.
Water is a basic necessity and no one should be denied access. An interesting comment that was made was that the people of Flint and the rest of America coul...

Martin OttAug 06, 2018

This is a must read. Shocking - you will think differently about topics such as city infrastructure and the trustworthiness of our supposed EPA protectors and city governments. ...

GiuliaMay 22, 2018

Chock full of information and details on what actually happened in Flint, Michigan when the city decided to stop using Detroit water to avoid the high cost. It is very disheartening to read that fellow human beings really did not care that other humans were basically being poisoned fro...

LaurenMay 06, 2018

Thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for providing an advanced copy of this book in return for an honest review.
This book is phenomenal, and I believe anyone who wants to get a good understanding of the water crisis in Flint should read this book. It's incredibly well-researched ...

JenniferJul 31, 2018

An exceptional book that gives a detailed account of the Flint water crisis. A great deal of research and historical background information provide the backdrop for the tragedy that inflicted this city through the poisoning of their water. The resilience of the people of Flint always s...

MusiclibJul 19, 2018

Clark's journalistic telling of the circumstances surrounding the poisoning of the citizens of the city of Flint shines a needed light on the historical trends that, combined with more concern for money saved than people, put Flint in the path of this tragedy long before the water swit...

CarolJul 08, 2018

?Thousands have lived without love; not one without water.?
?W.H. Auden"
The short review: Everyone should read this book. All readers interested in learning why the disaster in Flint happened. Plus, all other US readers who couldn?t care less about Flint or its problems. A...

Karen NelsonMay 21, 2018

Anna Clark's "A Poisoned City" is such a well researched and damning account of the Flint, Michigan water crisis, reveals who is responsible, and what led to it. It truly is a sickening account of how poor decisions by ?leadership? and greed can come together and affect children an...

NancyMay 19, 2018

A woman who was a high school classmate posted on Facebook about her work distributing bottled water in Flint, Michigan through the American Red Cross. Day after day people came for a case of water. The had to make daily trips because they were only allowed one case a day. The people n...

Robin BonneApr 21, 2018

What happened to Flint, Michigan? This book answers the big questions surrounding the Flint Water Crisis.
The author sorted out all the details and explains clearly what happened. I appreciate all the research that went into this book to provide a clear explanation of what is going on...

Anna (never_withouta_book)Jan 09, 2019

So, a quick recap of what I got from this book. A city manager decided to cut cost on water by changing the water sources. As a result of this douchbag?s decision, Flint residents were exposed to lead in their water system for months. Lead poisoning does permanent damage!!!(like?.w...

Grace LernerApr 18, 2018

"The lack of attention spoke to the level of importance we ascribed 'those' people in Flint at the time, not that they didn't exist." (The report from the Commission investigating the crisis.)
Anna Clark's "A Poisoned City" is a damning, thoughtful, and thorough account of the Flint...

KathleenJul 14, 2018

This is a huge ?wake-up? call for all of us who take for granted that the water that comes out of our taps is safe. We trust that our Public Works departments are doing their jobs to ensure that the water is treated correctly?and that the County, the State, and Federal Government...

Tracy (The Pages In-Between)Jul 27, 2018

Thank you Henry Holt #Partner for sending me a free copy of this book, in exchange of an honest review.
I rate this a 5 out of 5 Stars.
Bare with me guys, this will be my first time reviewing a non-fiction book, but this one is very important to me, and something I think EVERYO...

AmySep 20, 2018

Just as it was once difficult to prove the symptoms of lead poisoning were the direct result of lead exposure, so it is hard to prove environmental justice. In law, so much depends on showing intention, or motive, to cause harm. But in environmental crimes - a school built on top of ha...

Latisha JoujouteJul 19, 2018

" There seemed to be enemies everywhere. People in power were working harder to protect themselves and their instituations than do what was right, he felt which seemed to him to be an utter betrayal of public trust."
I am shocked by the government of Flint and the ways they tried...

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About the author

Anna Clark

Anna Clark is a journalist in Detroit and the author of "The Poisoned City: Flints Water and the American Urban Tragedy." Her writing has appeared in Elle Magazine, the New York Times, Politico, the Columbia Journalism Review, Next City, and other publications. She has been a Knight-Wallace journalism fellow at the University of Michigan and a Fulbright fellow in Nairobi, Kenya.

Anna has been a writer-in-residence in Detroit high schools through InsideOut Literary Arts. She's also been a longtime co-leader of an improv theater workshop at a Michigan prison. Anna edited "A Detroit Anthology," a Michigan Notable Book, and authored "Michigan Literary Luminaries: From Elmore Leonard to Robert Hayden." She graduated from the University of Michigan and from Warren Wilson College's MFA Program for Writers.